2012 East Coast Safari - October 5-8, 2012

[yellocoyote]

For those of you who don't get over to LOST, we are in the midst of planning and preparing for the 5th Annual East Coast Safari, to be held at Coal Creek OHV in Oak Ridge, TN.

Info here: LOST JEEPS • View forum - 2012 ECS - October 5-8, 2012 - Coal Creek OHV/Windrock, TN

I've started collecting goods for our raffle too - up for grabs so far?

JBA UCA's for KJ/KK
Hi-Lift 48" Jack
Survival Straps
etc.

More to come! We hope you can make the trip!

 

[yellocoyote]

Day 1

Our 'Day 0' and 'Day 1' were barely separated by about 3 hours of early morning sleep. We arrived to the Windrock Park Campground about 5am local (eastern) time, and slept till 8am.

After getting up, running some quick errands, grabbing quick breakfast and meeting with Dave-O and family from IN, we hit a few trails while we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive.

Dave does some last minute tweaks under the hood of his KJ

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Enjoying the first initial view from above...

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Later that early-afternoon, we were joined by Dan (dgeist) and continued to get into whatever trouble we could find...

Dave accidentally found out where the trail dropped off... :shock:

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Gratuitous Eugene shot #1 - not lookin' or running too bad at over 195K miles at this point.

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We picked up Will's friend Daniel from Kentucky, Colin from Georgia and Tony P all the way from Miami, FL! This comprised our group for the day.

Killin' time playing on the rocks...

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Headed back up the trail - yes, this is up the hill although the image makes you believe you're looking down...

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Aaron and Will help Dave navigate a rough spot in the trail...

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Dan is next...

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And now it's time for Tony's turn!

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A beautiful day for trail riding.

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This upper plateau was perfect for posing and taking in the views!

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Will's TJ sees nuttin' but sky!

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I should have stood next to my door for perspective on how far I had between my door and the ground. At 5'4", I couldn't really jump out, so I ended up traversing the rock rails to the back tire, and then stepping down from there. :lol:

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Still a little bit of wiggle room here... :rockon:

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Some of the windmills on the ridge...

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It was at this point that we went down into a "logging road." Compared to everywhere else we'd been up to that point, this lower trail was quite muddy in comparison. A couple people had a few issues with it...

Tony P gets stuck after sliding from the drier, upper right side into the lower, muddy left side.

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And in effort to back up and pull him out of the mud, Dan gets stuck in the mud himself!

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Will and his winch to the rescue! He pulls Dan out using the winch, and then comes back to strap Tony out.

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We reached a point-of-no-return (even for the TJ) due to a pretty deep water hole and an intense off-camber mud crossing... one where one false move could have you sliding into an abyss! :dead: So we headed back up the trail the way we came. By the time we surfaced back up to the plateau from earlier it was nearly night time.

Oak Ridge, TN in the distance...

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We called it a night, and congregated in Oak Ridge for dinner.

 

[yellocoyote]

Day 2

Images from Day 2:

The boys play back at camp before the Jeeps get their chance to go out and play.

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And some of the others wait and converse while last minute trail prep is done.

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More inspection of "The Staircase"

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Staging for the "Trail-rash Trail," as a few of us agreed it should be called. :JEEPIN:

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A steep hill climb that looked a whole lot more difficult than what it ended up being... mostly due to hill angle. Everyone climbed it with ease. This was a short, one-way trail... so we took turns going up and coming back while the others waited below and had lunch.

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David's GF (and rightful owner of the KJ) takes her turn on the trails! epper:

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While David looks on...

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Back down the hill...

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Once everyone had finished lunch and playing on the hill, we continued on... into a trail with small rock garden areas.

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Tony P's KJ sees 3 wheels for the first time! 8)

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Short break at a clearing within the trail.

Posers... :jester:

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The boys were passing the time away...

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And then back on the trail!

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Trying to get Zack's temporarily incapacitated 2wd CRD up the rock garden...

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Some bigger rocks for bigger rigs...

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The rest of us take the less intense, but yet still challenging right side of the trail...

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Zack tries the lead-foot approach in his 2wd-ness... the aroma of burning rubber prevailed.

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He opted to be pulled the rest of the way up as opposed to losing thousands of miles worth of tread. :lol:

We called it early on this night as it was our grilling and raffle night! We did collect one more KJ - Tony's parents joined us that evening which rounded out Jeep count to 8.

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[yellocoyote]

Day 3

From behind the gated road up to the windmills...

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Taken for perspective... if you look down at the base of the windmill, you'll see Dan (dgeist) - he's actually still standing 20 ft or so in front of the base. :shock: These suckers are BIG! 8)

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It was a chill, windy morning atop the mountain... clouds were looking a little angry.

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We said our farewells to some of the others that had to leave early. Aaron finished up a rear brake job on Eugene - turns out the left rear brake shoe pad had separated from the hardware the afternoon before. Luckily they were still under factory warranty... and just a little over $7.00 was spent (the cost of a couple of cans of brake cleaner) to make the fix. Hats off to Colin for the use of the Jetta to get the job done! You da man! 8)

We head up trail 2 where we find a couple of TJ worthy obstacles for Will...

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I didn't get any shots from trail 16... I was the tail-gunner on that section, and was simply enjoying the ride. It's one of my favorite trails that we've run at the park. A good combination of rock gardens, shelf trails, mud holes...

For all images from the entire weekend, click here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152173652200052.913978.851890051&type=1

 

[first&lastKJ]

Great photos, looks like a blast!

 

[jeeper4life]

Cool photos! Man Tony drove a long way! Did he bring any spare parts with him in case of breakage?

 

[Ry' N Jen]

Looks like quite the excellent trip you had.
Great photographs as usual Jayme.

 

[yellocoyote]

Cool photos! Man Tony drove a long way! Did he bring any spare parts with him in case of breakage?

Not that I'm aware of.

 

[Wulfhound]

Nice photos I new there was a reason I have been wanting to move from California to Tenn.:smokin: (besides the women and fishing!!:fishing1:hahano:

 

[badkittystt]

Great pics!!! If I use my imagination I can pretend I was there with you guys, in my mom's Rav! lol But it was really great meeting you and the offer for some Caribbean off-roading still stands! I believe Jason showed you the view from our sofa bed

 

[yellocoyote]

He did! And it's on the never-ending list of places we NEED to go.